You’ve made the wise decision to skip Amateur Night at a restaurant, opting to dine in with your Valentine tonight. Your next big decision: What to serve and drink from the incalculable number of bottles and labels strewn across your liquor store shelves.
So in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, we’re not about to make you do that alone. Join us as we look at beguiling wines and spirits that will good AF when you pull them out during your V-Day dinner. Enjoy.
The Wine
7 Moons: A red blend using Central California and Lodi grapes, 7 Moons’ bottles evokes romantic images of moon-gazing and long nights. Notes of chocolate and strawberry jam, bearing a finish with staying power, make it a memorable bottle to share with a Valentine. $9.99
1000 Stories Wine: You’re not trying to talk about marriage tonight. Unless it’s the marriage of this California Zinfandel with the complexity of an American whiskey barrel. Still, maybe use a different word. $18.99
SAVED Wines Red Blend 2014: Designed by tattoo artist Scott Campbell, the esoteric copper-toned label on this elegant Malbec-Syrah blend, with a tiny bit of help from Petit Verdot and Souzão, is meant as a coded love letter to his wife, actress and director Lake Bell. $25
The Bubbly
Love Unconventional: Moët & Chandon recently released this limited-edition rosé. The bottle is pink with suggestions of a remixed Holly Golightly and her paramour getting flirty on the bottle. How can you go wrong with this? $65?
Limited Edition Champagne Bollinger Rosé 2006: It's Bollie. And it's rosé. And it comes in a cool metal box. $149.99
The Sake
Heavensake: The world’s first French-Japanese sake collaboration, brewed under the supervision of a Piper-Heidiseck Champagne expert. With both a junmai ginjo and junmai daiginjo, it’s a cross-cultural love affair with delicate floral and fruit notes. $60/$130
The Liqueur
Yuzuri: Handcrafted from rice, Kumamoto mountain water and yuzu fruit, this new citrus-forward liqueur from the makers of Kikori whiskey tastes unique in cocktails and sensual sipped on its own. $45
Cerasum: Just released, this is a bitter apertivo infused with three varieties of Michigan cherry with Virginia sakura blossoms and curated roots like chamomile, hibiscus and juniper. If you’re not turned on by that description, there’s nothing we can do to help you. $40
The Vodka
Grey Goose Interpreted by Ducasse: If you’re going to do vodka tonight, make it a special bottle made in collaboration with Alain Ducasse, distilled with Picardie wheat that’s been toasted at three different levels for a vanilla stuffed with notes of vanilla, toffee, almonds and dark chocolate. $100
Zirkova One+Together Gift Box: Here you have two vodkas in one package. Zirkova One is a Ukrainian wheat vodka meant to be sipped neatly. Its companion Zirkova Together is meant for mixing in cocktails. It’s a love story. Awww.
3 Kilos Vodka Gold 999.9: 21 grams is the weight of the human soul, they say. 3 Kilos is the name of this Dutch vodka that comes in a bottle resembling gold bars, we say. $70
